(slightly odd story, I know, but I like it!)
"Are you alright? You aren't
yourself lately," commented Squall, squeezing into a seat across from Rinoa in
the cafeteria. If only he knew, she thought, how right he was. "Oh,
I'm fine, really. Just a little tired, stayed up all last night helping Selphie
take down the decorations in the ballroom." Squall looked unconvinced. "Really,
I'm fine," she said, smiling weakly. He shrugged, still looking a little
concerned. "Alright. I have to go and check on the crew that's about to head
out to Trabia." She nodded. "I'll talk to you later."
When he was gone, she stood up, and
left the cafeteria, going to the library. She had to relieve her mind of the
raging sea of thoughts that kept pushing relentlessly at the back of it. She
knew perfectly well what was wrong…but if she told anyone how worried she
really was, people might start to distrust her, to have second thoughts about
the things they'd said. "Of course you can stay at the garden!" Cid had sounded
so firmly convinced the day he'd said that. "You're always welcome here!" But
Rinoa still feared that there was more to her than even she knew.
She entered the library, and walked
around to the back, where she found the history section. It didn't take long to
find a whole shelf dedicated to the topic she was so interested in. She grabbed
four of them, and settled herself down in a chair for a long afternoon of
reading. Then she opened the first book, with the title, "The Sorceress
Wars-Horrors and Tragedies."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hours later, Rinoa was still
sitting, but she was no longer reading. A huge stack of volumes had piled up
next to her on the table, and her face had gone pale as snow. "I'm…a monster,"
she whispered to herself. "I'm a sorceress witch!" She buried her face in her
hands, thinking about all the things Adel and Edea had done, all the people
Adel had killed just by waving her hand, the people who'd died screaming at the
very glance of a sorceress. "I have the power to destroy…everyone," she
whispered in horror.
Standing up slowly, she walked out of
the library, as if in a dream. She didn't know where she was going, or what she
would do. She suddenly picked up speed and started running, running as fast as
she could, bursting through a door she didn't know, and slamming directly into
the colossal leg of a T-Rexaur. She fell onto her back, grabbing for her
weapon, but she wasn't fast enough. The monster bore down on her, it's jaws
open for the final blow.
Just as she was sure she was going
to die, a great white light began to glow softly from her, suddenly bursting
out and almost blinding her with its radiance. She cringed away from it, as it
continued to grow stronger, and a huge deep boom echoed around the entire area.
She stayed huddled in a ball, waiting for the death to come, but when it didn't,
she opened her eyes…and watched in horror as the monster simply…disintegrated
into a heap of mush at her feet.
"Oh
my god," she whispered. "I'm…a walking weapon…"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Rinoa didn't even try to sleep that
night. There wasn't any point. She sat in her room until midnight, resisting
the urge to cry or scream, or run somewhere again. She knew perfectly well what
she had to do. "I can't stay here," she whispered to herself. "I could destroy
everything." She swallowed hard, and grabbed a book off her desk, leafing
through it quickly. "Wind magic," she continued to whisper. "Some sorceresses
are weak against wind magic…"
Without another word, she stood up,
and walked over to the side of the room. She closed her eyes and raised her
hands, biting her lip as she took a deep breath. Squall…she thought
hopelessly, hanging her head, and wishing she could speak to him one last time,
imagined the look on his face when he heard she had died. I wish it could've
been different…I love you, that's why I have to do this, Squall…I never want to
hurt you…I'm not in control…There are other sorceresses…I could be possessed,
at any time, even if Ultimecia isn't a threat anymore. I don't want to be a
weapon…don't you see? It's better this way…she cringed, and then, with a
final nod to the inevitable, she cast the tornado spell intended to end her
life, the life that she knew to be so threatening to others.
But even as a cold chill washed over
her, it was countered by that blinding white light, shooting out of her from
all sides, and causing her to crumple to her feet, crying out in the pain of
the heat that it brought along with the relief from the cold. When it was over,
she looked around, and found that she was still lying on the floor, her heart
beating, and the tornado magic washed away by her own dark protection. She
stared up to the sky and cried, "Why can't I die??"
Throwing
herself down onto the bed, Rinoa tried to sleep, but she couldn't get Squall's
face out of her mind, and Selphie's, and Irvine and Quistis, Zell, Cid, Edea,
Nida, Ellone, everyone she knew and loved. She pictured them just melting away,
like the T-Rexaur in the training center, and screaming in pain, while someone
laughed, shrill and high and painful out of Rinoa's mouth, and she knew the
laugh was not her own. Letting out a long pained sob, she fell into fitful,
tortured slumber, haunted by dreams of Squall disappearing before her eyes.
But by the next morning, she'd made up her mind. It was all
too clear now how she had to go about it, and that she had to be done with it soon,
before she got too afraid. She would end it, here and now. So she dug around in
her closet for a few minutes, and then headed out to the quad.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Squall was in a great deal of confusion.
Pressured greatly by Quistis and Selphie, he'd gone and bought Rinoa a considerable
sized bouquet of roses, and when he'd tried to go back to his room, Irvine had been
waiting to shove him out the door and on his way. So he had nothing else to do but
to go and deliver his gift to Rinoa. But no one seemed to know where she was.
It was odd, he thought, as he ran to
the infirmary, to see if perhaps she'd gotten hurt. It was very odd, because Rinoa
always seemed to spread such sunshine where she went, that all the people who she
passed and talked to remembered very well the pretty girl who'd stopped to chat,
and could usually easily point him in her direction. But today, she didn't seem
to have talked to anyone at all. No one had even remembered seeing her, and it bothered
him. Rinoa didn't keep to herself by nature.
As he approached the infirmary, he saw
a flash of blue out of the corner of his eye. Whirling around, he saw Rinoa's foot
disappearing into the quad. "Rinoa!" He called out, smiling, but she didn't answer.
He walked quickly in that direction, wondering if perhaps she hadn't heard him.
He entered the quad, and jogged down the steps, seeing her standing in the middle
of the room. "Rinoa!" He called out again, but again she didn't seem to hear him.
Then, as he watched, amazed, she leaned back, arching her back farther and farther
until her head almost touched her toes, which were floating some inches above the
ground. Too shocked to speak or move, he watched, as she uncurled, and floated upward,
spinning gently.
As he watched, a dim fuzzy glow spiraled
around her, suddenly shaping itself into two huge white wings, which spread out
from her back. They opened slowly, engulfing the entire room in an eerie light,
so that Squall couldn't see. Snapping out of his stupor, he ran forward, so
that he stood beneath her, still blinded. On an impulse, he drew his Lionheart,
and swiped it through the air. The magic light sliced open, and pieces of it
began falling away, like snow. Only then could he look up. Rinoa had something
clutched to her chest. As she spun towards him, he saw what it was. A dagger
glinted in the falling shards of light, and she swiftly raised it, spearing a
piece of the light on it, and aiming towards her heart. Suddenly, it was as if
time stood still for Squall.
He remembered the day they'd first
met, when he'd helped try and liberate Timber. He remembered how she'd come
back to save them that time in the desert prison, and he remembered rescuing
her from falling off Balamb Garden. He remembered how she smiled, how her hair
blew in the wind, the way her laugh sparkled and the way her arms felt when she
embraced him, the way her lips felt on his, and the way his heart felt every
time she was near him. He felt like he was falling, falling through a black
abyss and the only thing he could see was Rinoa's face.
"RINOA!" he screamed, slashing at
the air with his sword, in vain. "RINOA! RINOA, STOP, PLEASE, RINOA, I LOVE
YOU!" And then everything was thrown into blackness. The light was gone, the
white feathered wings were gone, and the dagger clattered at his feet. Rinoa
was falling, falling into his outstretched arms as she had once before, and he
caught her, held her to him and ran his fingers through her hair, tears running
down his face as she embraced her, determined to never ever let her go, to
never let her leave him again. Never.
"You tried…to leave me…" he
whispered hoarsely. "Squall," she whispered, and he heard the tears in her
voice. He wiped them away with his sleeve, as she looked beseechingly into his
eyes. "I have to! I could kill everyone! You should never have rescued me that
day! I'm dangerous, I'm-!" He stopped her with a kiss. "Rinoa," he whispered
fiercely. "I don't care. I don't care about anything. I love you. I love you so
much. I'd kill for you, I'd die for you, I'd forsake everything for you, don't
you ever leave me!"
And
as she rested her head on his shoulder and sobbed, she knew she never could.
